


Experiential Learning

by knight_tracer, somnolentblue



Category: Rotkäppchen | Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Audio Format: M4B, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, Awesome Ladies Podfic Anthology VII, Collaboration, Fairy Tale Retellings, Gen, IN SPACE!, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes, red riding hood is an explorer, the mother is an ai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-25 08:33:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9811463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/somnolentblue/pseuds/somnolentblue
Summary: A wolf was not on any of the lists of "species you will likely encounter" that Cinnabar had studied for her quals.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Content notes at end.

Podfic Length: 10:26  
Download Links: [mp3](http://knight-tracer.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/%5bLittle%20Red%20Riding%20Hood%5d%20Experiential%20Learning.mp3) | [m4b](http://knight-tracer.parakaproductions.com/Podfic/%5bLittle%20Red%20Riding%20Hood%5d%20Experiential%20Learning.m4b)

Link to the whole anthology [here](http://halfamoon.dreamwidth.org/297500.html)

  


The aggressive chimes of her alarm dragged Cinnabar out of sleep, and she rolled over and shoved her head underneath her pillow. "Make it stop," she mumbled.

Her ship, a tidy little EQ-class her parents had given her when she passed her quals, along with enough foodpacks for her very first Explore + Report mission and her grandmother's antique compass, hummed. "The requested action is outside of my parameters," it said, and she whined. Unfortunately, her parents had also hired Sibyl, an AI with a strong caretaker drive and a penchant for pleasant obstinacy, as her shipnav. It was more like having a fourth parent than a partner, except she still had to split the EX-R commission 50/50. 

"Fine, I'm up," she said, rolling out of her bunk. As always, she tripped on her discarded shipsuit, and, as always, stuck her tongue out when Sibyl sighed. She pulled her suit on, listening to Sibyl's running commentary about the ship's maintenance needs. 

"Additionally," Sibyl said, as Cinnabar contemplated her coffee, "we are within range of two Explore + Report prospects."

"Finally!" Cinnabar exclaimed. "Which one's more awesome?"

"Rendering a qualitative judgment is outside of my parameters," Sibyl said. 

"Uh-huh."

Sibyl sighed. "Based on your unfortunate habit of removing your skinsuit--"

"It's not unfortunate! To truly get the feel of a place you have to breathe the air, smell the vegetation!"

"--I believe that P4T11 would be more awesome. It is a small moon with no Explore + Report missions to date and no classification beyond probability analysis. The seeker probes detected a G-class red forest, and its Calculated Risk Level is 3, which is allowable with your qualifications." 

Cinnabar grinned. She would be the first sentient being to step foot on a moon! 

****

The airlock opened, and Cinnabar bounced on her heels. The forest awaited! 

She jumped down from the boarding ramp and pulled her grandmother's compass out, orienting herself.

"That is not the approach advised by the Explore + Report guidelines," Sibyl said. "It is neither methodical nor based on probe data."

"Nope, but it's as good an approach as any," Cinnabar retorted. 

"P4T11's magnetic field is at variance with Earth's; your compass will not work as designed."

"Not the point, Sibyl. Any direction is good for the initial look-see, and it works even with my fingers encased in the skinsuit. Which, hey, how are atmospherics?"

"As the reports stated, the air is safe for homo sapiens. Nonetheless--" Cinnabar pulled off her helmet and peeled off her skinsuit, tossing them onto the ramp "--you're going to forego the recommended safety measures."

"Air, skin, vegetation, nose," Cinnabar said, making sure that her clothes were tucked in and laced up and that the built-in monitors had clear lines to her body or to P4T11's environment. She did understand the point of protective garments, even if she couldn't stand the stifling skinsuit. The probes' reports and the risk variables didn't suggest there would be any dangerous flora or fauna, but that didn't preclude her twisting an ankle or, as her mother described it, "doing some damnfool thing because you don't have the sense granted a mouse in sight of a cat." 

Whistling, she stuck the compass in her pocket. The air was fresh (okay, it was kind of rank, but it was the rank of LIFE and NATURE instead of the stale smell-taste of ship air), and the sun felt amazing on her skin. She loved her job.

****

Three klicks later, she still loved her job. She could have lived without the insects--and Sibyl's reminders, before she muted her feed, that they wouldn't bother her in a skinsuit--but insects were nothing compared to the wind at her back, the sun on her face, and the thrill of being the first person to see the sights.

Such as that massive downed tree. 

She dropped her pack by the roots and then sprawled out on it. The trunk's gentle curve was perfect to stretch out her shoulders, so she let her arms and legs dangle while she closed her eyes and just listened to the forest. At least three species were contributing to the environmental soundscape, maybe more, depending on intraspecies variation. 

Something touched her nose. She scrunched her face, hoping that the bug would go away. It touched her nose again, followed by a huff of air. 

Cinnabar opened her eyes and froze. 

That was a wolf. 

Okay, that wasn't a wolf, wolves were terran creatures limited to the core systems, where they'd been adapting for centuries, but it looked like a wolf and crickets crunching crackers--

She took a deep breath. The not-wolf looking down at her took one as well. Then it sneezed. 

"Really?" she said. When that didn't elicit a response, she inched down the log until she wasn't right underneath it, sat up--ha, her gym program wasn't "insufficient"-- and turned around. 

The not-wolf was quadrupedal, had a tail, was about a meter high at the shoulder, and, well, looked exactly like the wolves she'd read about. Its fur was black, its eyes were blue, and its tongue lolled out of its mouth, although who knew if it was for thermoregulation or the better to taste her with. It stretched forward, sticking its nose in her neck, right underneath her jaw. Then it backed up, vocalized once, and trotted off into the trees. 

Cinnabar slid down the log, grabbed her pack, and scrambled to catch up. This is what EX-R dreams were made of!

****

She really hoped that her monitors were catching this, because it was an actual statistical improbability, and the more documentation the better. (And take that, her sister's insistence that seeker probes rendered EX-R missions obsolete!) She could check in with Sibyl, but that would mean turning her feed back on and result in more scolding than she had time to hum noncommittally at. 

Suddenly, the not-a-wolf stopped. And then the not-a-wolf became a fuzzy ball of light and consolidated into the shape of a person. A naked person who looked remarkably like Cinnabar's ex, Xan. 

"That's not fair," Cinnabar said, processing what had just happened. Which seemed to be a shapeshifter shapeshifting, except the only known shapeshifters were were three systems over and never left their system -- something about celestial radiation and chemical valences.

Not-Xan smiled and walked closer. Cinnabar didn't back up, even when it was close enough that she should have been able to smell its breath. Except it didn't smell of anything -- not sweat or cleansers or food or the plant-filled water they'd splashed through. It was disconcerting. 

"Hi," she said, "I'm Cinnabar." There were probably protocols for this, but she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near an initial encounter with a sentient being -- those were done by people with decades more experience and so many more quals than she had! 

It smiled, and suddenly it didn't look much like Xan.

"You have, ummm, very long teeth," she said nervously. 

"Fascinating," not-Xan said. "Your mammalian perception of my appearance overrides this shapeform."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Cinnabar admitted. "Shapeform? And how can I override your appearance? You look like what you look like, which is, I maintain, not fair."

"Mmm," it said, "you wouldn't. My people wish to remain unbothered by your exuberant explorations. We'll have to erase this encounter."

That phrasing did not fill Cinnabar with cheer. "That doesn't make any sense," she protested, "you showed yourself to me!" 

"You followed," it replied, "contravening both EX-R protocol and common sense. A predator of that size belongs on a Risk-6 astronomical body, and you should have immediately returned to your ship. When the recordings failed to verify my presence--" Cinnabar jerked back in shock "--you would have a good ghost story and free drinks for years. But instead--" it reached out, laying its hand against Cinnabar's throat "--you're not going to get anything."

***

Cinnabar woke up, gasping. The medbay lights were dimmed, but they still felt excruciatingly bright to her headache. "Sibyl?" she croaked.

"I'm relieved you're awake," Sibyl said. "I was worried, and don't think that we're not going to talk about you cutting your feed later. You wandered back five hours overdue. You had heatstroke, dear, and I'm going to have to insist that you wear your skinsuit in the future; it was designed to prevent entirely preventable disasters." Although Sibyl's voice was firm, she did not, blessedly, raise it. 

"Did the monitor data at least come through?" Cinnabar asked, closing her eyes and lying very, very still. 

"Do you mean clear visual, olfactory, and aural feeds? No, there's just static."

Cinnabar whimpered. "I have to get back out there." She tried to sit up and promptly abandoned that plan. "Tomorrow."

"No," Sibyl said. "You had a medical incident. P4T11 will be upgraded to Risk-5 since it caused injury to EX-R personnel, which puts it beyond your qualifications. You are going to sleep, and tomorrow we are going to H0T11, where you will wear a skinsuit and do a perfectly by-the-book Explore + Report."

"Yes, ma'am." Maybe it wouldn't hurt to wear a skinsuit, at least until Sibyl stopped worrying.

**Author's Note:**

> Content notes: Cinnabar (Red Riding Hood) has her memories removed without her consent.
> 
> Blue's notes: We did it! I had a blast creating this (fairy tales! IN SPACE!), and I'm so happy that knight_tracer collaborated with me. Thanks, knight_tracer! :D Also, I'd like to thank scintilla10 for coming in to save the day at the last minute when I was desperately editing and needed an outside point of view.
> 
> KT's notes: \o/ Awesome ladies!!! I had lots of fun creating this podfic. I hope the voice effects works for you.


End file.
